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Relationship 'destroyed my life'

Stephen Cauchi

A teenager who regularly had sex with the mother of a good friend has told a Melbourne court in a statement how it destroyed his life.

The teenager – who is now 23 – was 13 when he started having sex with Deborah Goulopoulos, 42, in 2002.

Ms Goulopoulos, now 52, of Reservoir, has pleaded guilty to one charge of maintaining a sexual relationship with a child under 16.

The teenager was a student at a Melbourne private school when he started having sex with Ms Goulopoulos over a 30-month period. He stopped the sexual relationship a day short of his 16th birthday, the County Court heard.

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The pair met at a Box Hill skatepark which Goulopoulos' son also attended.

Ms Goulopoulos also gave the boy drugs, alcohol, and expensive gifts.

The pair would often have sex when the boy visited his friend's home.

Judge Carolyn Douglas was told, via a victim impact statement read to the court, how the teenager had suffered depression, anxiety and loss of self-esteem as a result of the relationship.

"I hate her for everything she's done to me," he said in the statement. "I want her to be punished.

"I suffer every day because of what she's done to me. She has taken way my soul, dignity, self-confidence and self-respect."

The man said he had done poorly at school and university as result and had not been able to study law as he had wished. Instead, he worked as a roof plumber's labourer.

"I would give anything to erase what my life has been for the past 10 years," he said. "She is a sexual predator... who does not deserve to be part of the wider community."

The boy's father told the court his son had gone from being a normal, happy 13-year-old to being a disrespectful and drug-addled 16-year-old. The relationship had "devastating" effects, he said.

"She sexually abused my son, abused him with drugs and alcohol... what you did was not just very very wrong, it was evil."

The father said he also blamed himself for not finding out until after the abuse had stopped. "My son's life was destroyed because of my ignorance... I failed as a father. I failed to protect him."

The boy's mother told the court she suffered anxiety and depression as a result of the episode and had to be prescribed anti-depressants.

Goulopoulos' barrister, Jane Dixon SC, told the Court that the boy's family had other problems which could be blamed for their distress.

"Much can be put at the feet of the accused, but not all," she said.

Goulopoulos, said Dixon, had attempted suicide in 2006 and had become a "shell of her former self''.

She had "relatively limited social skills", a dysfunctional marriage, poor self esteem, and had suffered depression for much of her life – depression that had become major depression in 2006, 2008 and 2010.

He told the court his client could be a target in prison because she was a sex offender. He said his client was "mortified' by what she had done but had shown unequivocal remorse.

"It's my view she's not a paedophile," he said.

Prosecutor Louisa Di Pietrantonio said Goulopoulos deserved a sentence of between six and eight years, with a non-parole period of between four to six years. Ms Dixon said her client’s sentence should be a "bit below the lower part of that range".

Ms Dixon said her client had no prior convictions, had pleaded guilty and prior to the offence had been a good citizen and a good mother.

Judge Douglas remanded Goulopoulos in custody for sentencing on Thursday December 6.